SC Vietnam Veteran Reflects on His Time Served as a B-52 Navigator

September 13, 2017 - Posted in Palmetto Scene by Kaitlyn Cannon

“I think it was a part, something for all of us. I can’t speak for anyone except myself, but I think it’s something that affects us all, in terms of our own personal maturity, especially at a young age, and it sort of stays with you always,” says Boyd Gilbert, Vietnam Veteran and B-52 Navigator from 1970 to 1973.

He discusses his involvement in Linebacker II, the mission that made the North Vietnamese ask for a ceasefire and that brought them back to the peace negotiations.

When reflecting on his time in the military, Gilbert explains, “it changed me because I really learned how insignificant I was, and I didn’t get a vote to whether I liked that feeling or not, it was there. No one can experience that, in whatever form they experience that in, without being humbled a little bit, and I needed that.”

The Vietnam War, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, premieres on September 17 on South Carolina ETV. Click here to view more stories and to submit your Vietnam memory.